Barack Obama

Let’s engage in a thought experiment: Pretend that it’s May of 2009, and Barack Obama, who has been president for a few months, has just shared some highly classified intelligence with the Russians. Let’s say this material has damaged America’s standing with our allies, exposed sources to possible retaliation and jeopardized the war on terror.

What do you think the leaders of Religious Right groups would be saying? My guess is they’d be calling for his impeachment, if not outright imprisonment.

Last week, the world was rocked by yet another outrageous claim by President Donald J. Trump: He asserted that former President Barack Obama had tapped his phones during the presidential campaign.

“How low has President Obama gone to tapp [sic] my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!” blared Trump’s March 4 tweet.

The Supreme Court this morning announced that it is remanding and vacating the lower-court decision in Gloucester County School Board v. G.G., the first transgender-rights case that the high court had ever agreed to hear.

So what does this mean, in laypeople’s terms? The Supreme Court had scheduled oral arguments for March 28. Now those arguments won’t happen this month. Instead, the case is going back to a lower federal court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, for more deliberation.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year – or not. The holiday season means something or nothing to many people. For the Religious Right, ‘tis the season for resurrecting the bogus “War on Christmas.”

There has been a lot of speculation about how President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to run the U.S. Department of Education, Betsy DeVos, might affect the issue of private school vouchers.

DeVos is known primarily for her advocacy of vouchers, and Trump has backed a nationwide plan with a staggering price tag of $20 billion. Many people are rightly alarmed.

But there’s another education-related issue we ought to be concerned about as well: creationism.

Four years after running unsuccessfully for president, former U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) is back in the news cycle in yet another election year – this time for saying that God chose Donald Trump to become the Republican presidential nominee.

Why did Donald Trump, a real estate mogul and reality TV star with no political experience, decide to run for president?

We have no shortage of theories. Some say Trump wanted free publicity to boost his sagging personal brand. Others assert it was all a stunt to launch a new cable TV channel. Still others insist Trump jumped in to shake things up and have a little fun, never expecting to actually win the Republican nomination.

Now Trump’s son Eric has put forth a new theory: His father was upset because the White House Christmas tree was renamed a “holiday tree.”

David Barton is still David Barton, which means the Religious Right’s favorite fake historian is once again distorting facts to suit his own agenda.

Last week, Barton appeared on a right-wing radio program called “The Patriot and The Preacher,” hosted by Mark Anthony – a former tech sector worker with a self-described “passion” for history – and the Rev. Ben Kinchlow – a former co-host on Pat Robertson’s “The 700 Club.”

Now that President Barack Obama has decided to nominate Judge Merrick Garland for the U.S. Supreme Court, a lot of people are wondering where he stands on various First Amendment issues.